Letters to the Editor
Letters to the
editor are welcome on this page. Only those with complete name,
signature, contact number and return address for verification
shall be considered for publication, subject to editing and space
limitation when necessary - Editor-in-Chief.
Thirsting for COLA
This increase is indeed way below the proposed 3,000-peso
across-the-board pay hike bill which has long been pending in
Congress. But such additional compensation is expected to help the
country’s lowly-paid government employees cope with the
ever-rising cost of living these days.
It was reported that much earlier government employees elsewhere
in the country, particularly Camarines Sur and Albay provinces,
had received their full three-month entitlement of P3,000 each.
But not in this “happy” city where public funds intended for state
workers’ benefits, particularly those of some “1,200” public
school teachers, could usually be withheld or, if eventually
released, subjected to unnecessary delay or other dubious
bureaucratic schemes.
Just this week, the city’s public classroom teachers found posted
on their ATM accounts – hold your breath - only P2,000, while
unconfirmed reports have it that school bigwigs had their P3,000
allowance released through checks. Why the blatant “inequity”, why
P1,000 had to be skimmed from each teacher’s meager pay and when
it has to be paid, if at all, remain to be a 1 million-peso
question.
And this doesn’t sound any strange at all. In fact, shortchanging
the poor teachers seems to have been the favorite “past time” of
the unscrupulous, the inept and the corrupt in our government
officialdom.
Early last year, the Naga City Schools Division Office managed to
allocate for its administrative and non-teaching personnel P3,000
each as full entitlement for their 2004 DepEd Anniversary Bonus,
but only P1,000 for each poor teacher. As of this writing, despite
repeated open follow-ups with the proper authorities, the balance
of P2,000 per teacher, which could have summed up to over 2
million pesos, has remained unpaid to each rightful beneficiary.
If all other government workers got full entitlements for their
2004 DepEd Anniversary Bonus and the three-month additional living
allowance, why would the approximately “1,200 public school
teachers” in this city have to receive only fractions of what are
due them?
Will the Naga City Schools Division Superintendent, the
multi-awarded City Mayor and other transparency advocates kindly
look into such apparent funding disparity or irregularity?
Or, isn’t it high time the teachers themselves exercised their
inalienable rights (to information and equal treatment) as
citizens of this “strong” republic – and finally wake up from
their long lethargy and apathy?
MANUEL A. COLLAO, via e-mail
